Hostgator

The Hostgator logo has become synonymous with superior web hosting. Based in Houston, Texas, this company has grown from a small provider of shared hosting to one of the world's largest hosts. More than nine million domain names are hosted by the company. It has been in operation since 2002 and now has ongoing partnerships with Cisco and Linux. HostGator has a 99% uptime rate, one of the best in the industry. The total downtime of the company in 2017 was a mere one hour and seventeen minutes spaced over 17 outages. This is one of the most important factors for individuals looking for a reliable web host, and HostGator comes through will flying colors. The company provides very good 24/7/365 support through a variety of methods. Users can email, submit a support ticket through the company's online portal, or reach tech support by phone. The only drawback is that wait times for live chat support can exceed fifteen minutes at certain times of the day. Those who purchase shared, reseller, or VPS hosting services from the company are protected by a 45-day money back guarantee. This is a little longer than the standard 30-day offer that is given by many hosting companies. When someone switches their hosting to Hostgator, the company is ready and willing to assist with migration. This means that the company will assist customers with moving their existing website over to the Hostgator servers. This alone is worth the price of the hosting because migrating websites can be tedious and troublesome. The pricing offered by Hostgator is among the lowest in the industry. Individuals can obtain shared hosting for as little as $3.95 per month. The company has also rolled out a new hosting plan specifically for Wordpress users that is priced at just $2.99 per month with the ability to pay monthly instead of semi-annually or annually. There are a few minor negatives that potential customers should be aware of. One of these is speed. Hostgator ranks just a little bit lower than the national average when it comes to speed. Backups are not free, and the price of packages can go up after an introductory period. These are not major issues, but some people will find them concerning.